Monday 23 July 2007 19.11 EDT
First published on Monday 23 July 2007 19.11 EDT

Many politicians dream of leaving a great legacy to be remembered in centuries to come. But reputations can be used in ways that their subjects never expected, which is surely the fate of Simón Bolívar, the anniversary of whose birth is celebrated across Spanish-speaking South America today. By any measure he was an extraordinary man who achieved extraordinary things: hailed as El Libertador, driving the Spanish out of six countries on the back of a military campaign fuelled by enlightenment philosophy, charisma and tremendous confidence and energy. Born in Caracas, now in Venezuela, into a rich Spanish family, he fought through the 1810s and 1820s to create a new republic, Gran Colombia, and for a moment succeeded. His campaign, at least in intention, was as noble as the American war of independence against Britain: but Bolívar, unlike George Washington, could not control what he created. In place of a great liberal unified republic, South America fragmented into oligarchy, with white Spanish-speaking citizens mostly on top, exploiting and frequently oppressing all others. That injustice has created pressure for a new South American revolution under Bolívar's name, especially in Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez presents himself as a modern-day Libertador. The parallel is perhaps more hoped for than real. Simón Bolívar was a great man. But he has given birth to a great myth, too. Modern leaders, eager for their own legacies, should remember how little they can control them.